press conference on ‘world fit for children + 5’; latest reports

by United Nations Secretary-General, unicef

 

Senior United Nations officials today spotlighted the great strides made towards meeting pledges on child education and some areas of health care, including “remarkable progress” in reducing under-five mortality, which had fallen below 10 million for the first time in 2006.

They also stressed that much more needed to be done to create a better world for girls and boys, especially with the fast-approaching 2015 deadline for realizing the Millennium Development Goals.  “We are making good headway, but we still have a long way to go,” said General Assembly President Srgjan Kerim during a press conference at United Nations Headquarters, where senior Government officials and civil society actors have gathered for a landmark two-day meeting to review progress towards “A World Fit for Children”, the 2002 Assembly-approved action plan to improve the lives of young people.

Joined by United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro and Ann Veneman, Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Mr. Kerim said that, with some 140 Member States signed up to address the plenary, the commemorative meeting –- “A World Fit for Children + 5” -- had drawn a “more than impressive” level of participation.  A record for the Assembly this year, it underscored the significance of the issue.  The decisions taken at the Assembly’s 2002 special session to bolster worldwide action to improve children’s lives “cut to the heart” of the Organization’s work and were closely tied to the priorities set for the sixty-second session:  responding to climate change, financing for development, and achieving the Millennium Goals.

Highlighting key elements of the declaration to be adopted tomorrow, he said they included a reaffirmation of Member States’ commitment to the 2002 Plan of Action, and their determination to scale up Government responses, global cooperation and resource mobilization, in accordance with “A World Fit for Children”.  With that in mind, and while the progress achieved since 2002 was encouraging, much remained to be done to address critical challenges in malnutrition, tackling pandemics, violence and exploitation, and discrimination, especially against girls.  “Our plate remains full, that is why we need to reaffirm the commitments made five years ago.”

Ms. Migiro recalled that, in 2002, Governments had agreed to time-bound targets and strategies in four priority areas:  promoting healthy lives; providing quality education; protecting against abuse, exploitation and violence; and combating HIV/AIDS.  The Secretary-General’s report, Children and the Millennium Development Goals, showed mixed results in efforts to realize those objectives over the past five years.

“Positive progress has been achieved since the special session, but more actions are needed everywhere to reach the goals that were agreed,” she said.  However, despite strides in education for girls, and while most countries were on track to meet the fourth Millennium Goal -– reducing by two thirds the mortality rate among children under five by 2015 -– the overall rate of decline of under-five mortality was too slow for developing countries as a group to realize that Millennium target.  In addition, maternal mortality rates remained “unacceptably high” across the developing world, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

She went on to say that some 90 million worldwide were still out of school, and around 90 per cent of children with disabilities in developing countries did not attend school.  Despite overall high enrolment ratios in many countries, severe problems with gender disparity remained.  More than 125 million children under the age of five years lived in households without potable drinking water.  Further, children all over the world remained susceptible to sexual exploitation and predation, even by adults who should be acting as their caretakers.  “If we are to have any chance of meeting these critical gaols, we must invest in every child, in every community everywhere to give each child a healthy start in life, good basic education, protection from exploitation and a chance to develop to his or her full capacity.”

Ms. Veneman said more than 90 children and young people, from 51 countries and ranging in age from 11 to 17 years old, were participating in a parallel Youth Forum, which had been under way in New York since Saturday.  On the final day of the commemorative meeting, the youth representatives would present their own outcome document to the Assembly.

She said on Sunday, some of the youth representatives had spoken with the Global Elders -- including Desmond Tutu, Graca Machel and Mary Robinson, former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights -- about the forthcoming worldwide commemoration of the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights.  About 300 representatives of non-governmental organizations were participating in the meeting, dealing with ethics education, the impact of climate change on children and other issues.

For its part, she said, UNICEF had released its sixth progress report, which was an excellent reference tool showing where achievements had be made and where greater efforts were needed.  It also showed how data could be used to highlight initiatives that had delivered results.  The international community must maintain a “collective sense of urgency” about achieving the Millennium Development Goals.  “We are hopeful that this special session and the side events that are around it will serve to renew that sense of urgency.”

Earlier, Mr. Kerim opened the press conference on a sombre note, condemning today’s deadly bomb attacks in Algiers and reiterating that terrorism was unacceptable “by whomever, wherever and for whatever purposes”.  The fact that United Nations offices had once again been targeted was a reminder that terrorism was a global challenge that knew no boundaries.  Ms. Migiro expressed her sincere condolences to the Government and people of Algeria and to the families of the United Nations staff and local population who had been victims of the “senseless and barbaric attack”.  Ms. Veneman expressed “shock and outrage”, noting that UNICEF had an office in Algiers about a mile from the site of the blast.

Taking questions about the differences between the reports before the Assembly, Ms. Veneman said UNICEF’s report had been put together to review progress in achieving many of the Millennium Goals and to address progress on specific targets, such as child mortality, which had fallen below 10 million per year to 9.7 million.  Many of the statistics in the report highlighted the reasons for that decline, such as the increased use of bed nets, significant drops in measles mortality, more immunizations and clean water.  As interventions increased, child mortality fell accordingly.

On climate change, Ms. Migiro said children should be taken on board in planning strategies to address global warming.  While they might not appear to know much about the phenomenon, in many underdeveloped countries that were more severely affected by climate change, they were really living with it.  At the same time, the world’s youth must appreciate how their actions impacted the environment.

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For information media • not an official record